The City is at War
by DorkNena x3
Summary: Everyone wants to be a Reaper- er, member of the “Soul Pack”. Whatever. It’s the same thing to Rosalinda since she is one and now that Ichigo met her, he’s in for one sex, gun, and fame filled ride. AU, my first Bleach fic, OC, and T for language/themes
1. UN0: Bang, Bang, Shoot 'em up, Y3AH

**Authors Note: Well HOLA and welcome to my new Bleach fanfic, and the first of its kind for me ^.^ Forgive the longness of this chapter because I seriously doubt that any other chapters of this story will be this long. Also forgive my sometimes poor grammer skills. I like words but they do not like me. ^.^'**

**This is inspired by songs from Lady GaGa and Cobra Starship (so I don't own the title of this story. That goes to Cobra =D) I also DON'T OWN BLEACH. Wish I did, but I don't.**

**Warnings: Lots of gun violence, underage drinking, a little bit of swearing, and an OC (sorry, I couldn't help myself)**

**The City is at War **

_The city is at war, playtime for the young and rich._

Soul, the most exclusive club on the south Californian coast, was surprisingly packed that warm summer night, Rosalinda noticed while scanning the crowd and sipping her club usual, a diamond appletini. '_Though_,' Rose sighed, '_I really shouldn't be surprised_.' A smirk crawled across her lips.

Four years ago, Soul sprouted up virtually overnight and became instantly infamous when the press found out the club was created by Kieskue Udahara, an extremely wealthy Hollywood socialite. Celebrities flocked to get into the door, but the club was exclusive. On a daily basis, A-list clebs and social princesses were rejected at the door. Everyone wondered why the club turned down nearly everyone that tried to enter. Why were the only people allowed through Soul's doors Kiesuke and his followers?

"Well," Rose said to herself, "if people knew the answers to those questions, we'd be a hell less popular." She laughed after that. With all of the drama, controversy, and danger that followed her friends and her around, Rose and the gang would be infinitely more famous. Statuses like hers were just too good to pass writing a major magazine cover story about. Sure, the club would lose some business, but people would come. They always did.

Take this particular night, for example. It was the once yearly opening of Soul to the public, and it certainly felt like everyone and their grandma was there.

"Pretty good for an announcement we made two and a half hours ago, huh?" Rose grinned when she heard the familiar voice.

"You were right, Kiesuke. Word does travel around fast." Because of their line of work, they couldn't really say ahead of time when their big blowout was every year. Last year they sent out their announcement 12 hours before opening to make sure no uninvited guests would show up and cause trouble. Rose had her doubts this time around (two hours, seriously?), but news spread fast when it came to the most exclusive group of socialites in the country.

"When am I ever wrong?" Kiesuke smirked and grabbed both the drink meant for her friend and Rose's drink before she could take another sip. "No underage drinking when you're supposed to be on the lookout."

Rose tried to protest, considering they only opened the club a half hour ago and the Hollows weren't known for their quick plan making, but Kieskue rolled his eyes and pointed across the room to their table.

"Hm, seems like Rukia wants your attention."

'No kidding,' Rose deadpanned when she saw her friend standing on the table and franticly waving her arm. In the other hand she was shaking an empty martini glass. Yumichika and Toshiro tried to get her to clam down and get off the table before she fell off.

"She's gonna be pissed when she finds out I don't have her drink. Give me our drink's back, Kie-" Rose turned to where her godfather _used_ to be, "-suke…"

Knowing that she wasn't getting her and Rukia's drinks back anytime soon, Rose made her way across the club. Instead of going around the half-drunken mass of people, she went right through them. To most people, the crowd who was packed together and seemed to move in unison would be hard to navigate. To Rose, it came as easy as breathing. She thrived off the energy that emitted from them. Everything about the club on these nights was perfect: the pounding music, the flashing lights, the throngs of people gathered to bask in the Glory of Kiesuke's social circle. Rose thrived in the fame that surrounded her those nights, and she loved it.

When Rose finally got to Rukia, she got the expected verbal beating without any explanation involving the usual "I do so much for you" and "you call yourself my best friend". When Rukia finally finished her rant and Rose could manage to get a word in to say that Kiesuke was the one that she should have been yelling at, Rukia just shook her head.

"Tisk, tisk, Rosie, you'd blame your own godfather for your own awful friend-ness," she grinned, "and to think that I just requested our favorite song just now."

The music slowly changed to a faster beat with more bass. Rose instantly recognized the song (a new mash up of Lady GaGa's _Beautiful, Dirty, Rich_, which was also the girls' self proclaimed theme song) and glomped her friend.

"That's just what I needed!"

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's dance!" Rukia laughed and dragged Rose to the middle of the dance floor.

* * *

The music blasted from inside soul and came pounding out through the closed doors where the infamous bouncer, Tessai, stood to keep out "riff-raff" like the obnoxiously loud brunette trying to charm, and then argue, his way into the club with no avail. Ichigo glanced across the street to the scene at the club, waiting for Keigo to get thrown from the front of the line.

"I told him there was no use trying," Tatsuki sighed, "there's no way we're getting in."

_Not that I mind much_, Ichigo thought. He wasn't one for partying anyway. The night started out as just a night for Ichigo to hang out with his friends, but Keigo had to go and overcomplicate things with newest random harebrain idea.

**Flashback time**

All was quiet at the Asano household, when all of a sudden-

"IIICCCHHHIIIGGGOOO!!1!" Keigo bounded into the living room, wildly waving his cell phone. Ichigo, using his Keigo-stopping reflexes, held his foot out in front of his friend to stop him from yelling and causing everyone to go prematurely deaf.

"Oh, my! Are you okay, Keigo?" Orehime gasped when his face hit the floor.

"Don't worry. Keigo's a survivor," Tatsuki laughed.

"I wonder what he's raving about now," Mizuro chimed in and tapped Keigo, who was still on the floor (being overly dramatic about getting tripped). "Come on, Mr. Asano. Wake-y, wake-y."

"Don't just kick me like I'm dead, Mizuro!!" Keigo sat up and yelled dramatically.

"You're kind of dead from the neck up already," Chad, who was sitting in a corner and observing the whole situation, said. Ichigo started cracking up with laughter.

"Well, you can all forget about the amazing opportunity I just found out we have!" Keigo laid face down on the floor once again and let out an insanely loud, long sigh.

"Okay, okay, we'll listen to what you have to say Keigo," Ichigo finally stopped his friend's mini sulk-fest. Keigo sprang to his feet and started his rant.

"Well, I just got a text from this guy, who knew this guy, who knew this guy, who knew this guy, who knew this guy, who knew this guy's cousin, who's girlfriend knew…!"

So Keigo went on and on through a list of associations to finally get to the point of the matter. He was supposedly invited through association to the most exclusive and amazingly awesome, infamous, celebrity-packed club in California, Soul.

Ichigo thought it was a decent fantasy, but there was virtually no chance of the group to get into Soul. Well, they were all old enough to get in, so they had that on their side, but that was all they had going for them. Soul did reject half the people that tried to get in, but Ichigo figured he might as well give it a try. Miracles could happen.

Too bad the club's bouncer thought otherwise. He looked over the six and said no. Keigo started arguing with him, but the bouncer just looked at Ichigo and shook his head. Come to think of it, it seemed to Ichigo that Tessai wasn't letting the group in because of him. Ichigo did get this weird feeling when he walked up to the door…

"You okay, Ichigo? You've been kind of quiet," Orehime brought Ichigo out of his thoughts.

"Yeah, I'm just trying to figure out how we got into this," he laughed while nodding towards Keigo who was finally thrown from the front of the line.

Keigo huffed and started ranting about how rude bouncers were. Ichigo pretty much tuned him out, like he usually did when his friend was ranting. After a while Orehime touched Ichigo's shoulder which brought him back from lala land.

"Well, I guess we're all heading home, then," she smiled, "You want a ride with us Ichigo?" Orehime's eyes were hopeful. She was wishing for more time with her long time crush, but Ichigo shook his head.

"No thanks. I don't live very far from here, so I'll walk," Ichigo waved goodbye to his friends and crossed to the other side of the street. Even though Soul was probably one of the most popular clubs in LA when open, it was in an incredibly random spot. It was on the edge of the city, almost in a residential part of town. Ichigo lived just blocks from the building, so he figured that walking home would be better than paying for part of the taxi ride his friends were taking.

Ichigo headed towards his house, leaving the pounding music and the horde of people trying to enter the club behind him.

* * *

"You know, if you want to go enjoy yourself, I can watch the monitors for a while," Yoruichi felt a pair of hands on her shoulders. She sighed and continued glancing from monitor to monitor.

"Nah, you go have fun, Kiesuke. I'll just stay here and do my job, unlike some people around here," Yoruichi rolled her eyes. On most nights like this, she and Kiesuke sat in the "VIP" room (otherwise known as Soul's surveillance center) to watch for any intruders. If one of them wanted to go see how the party was doing for themselves instead of staring at computer screens all night, they'd step out for a couple of minutes and be right back. On this particular night, however, Kiesuke slipped out and didn't come back for almost an hour.

"Okay, I get it. I'm sorry I left you here by yourself all this time just so I could shamelessly shirk my duties and have a good time," Kiesuke smirked and leaned down so he could whisper in her ear. "Now, why don't you go out there? I know you love these parties almost as much as the kids do. Plus it would be such a shame to let that dress go to waste."

Yoruichi laughed and smacked away Kiesuke's hand that was now stroking her arm.

"Could you not flirt with me when I'm trying to concentrate?"

"Well then, remind me to never give you a complement again," Kiesuke grinned and sat in the leather seat next to his friend.

"No, you were blatantly flirting with me," Yoruichi finally looked away from the screens on the wall, "And you wonder why Rosalinda flirts with every male that comes within five feet of her."

Kiesuke nodded and started inspecting the monitor for the camera in the back alley closely. He seemed like he noticed something on it. Yuroichi looked at the monitor too, but didn't see anything special about it.

"What's that?" Kiesuke finally said.

"I don't see anything."

"There," Kiesuke pointed to a line near the side of the screen.

"Hm," it was small, but once Yoruichi looked at it long enough, she could tell it was a cable. She knew what every side of the building looked like, and the cable was new. "You don't think…"

Kiesuke didn't wait for Yoruichi to finish her sentence before turning the chair to a set of computers next to him. He quickly started scanning all the programs that ran inside club, from the cameras, to strobe lights, and the audio systems. At first glance, everything seemed normal, but the coding for everything had one thing in common. They had three extra numbers on the end.

"Yoruichi," Kiesuke whispered, "keep your eyes on the monitors when I tell you this, okay?"

"Why?" Yoruichi nodded and glanced at the monitor to the back alley again.

"We've been hacked." Two men emerged from the shadows in the alley once Kiesuke realized what was wrong.

"I'll lock the doors," Yoruichi was already trying her best to get around the hacked codes.

Kiesuke quickly walked through the crowd, maneuvering the dancing people just as well as Rose did. He knew exactly where she and Rukia were. He found them in the middle of the dance floor, bouncing around to the music that was on.

"Hey Ruki, does this song sound funny to you?" Rose yelled over the music.

"Kind of… Wait! Why isn't this song mixed? Ikkaku's slacking off-" Rukia was cut off by Kiesuke's hand on her shoulder.

"Sorry to interrupt you're partying, but we have a serious situation on our hands," _Though_, Rose thought, you_ wouldn't be able to tell from his voice_. Kiesuke had a way of downplaying nearly everything with his oh-so-casual voice. It always made Rose do a mental double take.

"Oh, relax," Rukia laughed (Rose decided Rukia was definitely near her alcoholic cut off point) "it's not like there's a security breach or anything."

Kiesuke rolled his eyes and still kept a casual tone even though he looked like he wanted to slap himself in the forehead, "Oh, there is."

"Ah. Well then-"

Just then two men in all white burst through the front door. Both of them had a gun in each hand and wore masks. When rose saw this, she inhaled sharply, but hid any surprise with a groan.

"God, why hollows, today?"

"HELLOO REAPERS! Wanna come out and play?!" one yelled and shot a few rounds in the air, causing the crowd to duck down and panic. People ran for whatever exit they could find, but to their surprise, all other exits that weren't filled with crazy gunned men were locked.

"Can you handle this one for me?" Kiesuke said in a rush, sill looking at the door where four more men in masks entered.

"Of course we will!" Rose already had reached for her pistol strapped to her thigh underneath the tool of her dress.

Rukia had a cocky grin as she kissed her brand new gun. "I never thought I'd actually get to use this baby," she twirled the gun in her hand while nodding to Rose to shoot a warning shot.

"Everybody, get down now!" Rose yelled and fired into the air.

Over at the DJ booth, the music stopped. The DJ disappeared under the turntables only to return with a gigantic machine gun. Ikkaku, the most sought after DJ in California, was known for his violent tendencies. If only people knew how much he down right enjoyed a good fight. The fact would have saved many a paparazzi from a punch or two.

"Damn, I love a nice ass-kicking in the evening!" Ikkaku had an insane looking smile on his face and tossed a gun to Yumichika, who just ran by the booth.

The others, seeing that Ikkaku was taking care of the Hollows (and nobody wanted to get in the way of _his_ fight), hurried to gather the clubbers. Everyone was rushed into a room reserved for emergencies like this one, though Kiesuke hoped he would never have to use it.

One of the Hollows saw Rose and approached her once the people started to clear out. He stared at her with lusty eyes and smirked.

"Now, now, what do we have here?" the Hollow foolishly put one of his guns away. "This little girly thinks she can stand up and fight with her little gun." Rose felt another Hollow shove a gun into her back.

_Oh no they don't think that I'm not gonna kick their asses for this, _Rose's finger stayed on the trigger of her pistol.

"Tell you what, Reaper, I won't have my friend here shoot you in the back if you keep that pretty little mouth of yours shut and help us get rid of your Reaper friends, hm? What do you say to that?"

"Well," Rose smiled. In one swift move, Rose kicked the gun from the man with the one at her back into the air, punched the sleazy Hollow who was hitting on her in the nose, and caught the first gun. The Hollow fell to the ground (hopefully the nose bone went into his brain) "That's Miss Reaper to you."

* * *

Ichigo had walked maybe half a block away from Soul when he realized that someone was following him. He didn't think much of it at first. There were plenty of people at the club and chances where someone else was walking home too. Ichigo decided to walk a block more and if that guy was still behind him, he'd do something about it.

A block later, still behind him. Ichigo stopped walking and glanced behind him. Whoever it was stayed back far from him, but sure enough it was the same person. Ichigo decided to turn down an ally instead of heading straight to go to home. If there was anyone actually following him, he'd know.

Yup, he was still behind him. Ichigo was walked further away from his house. He knew how to defend himself; he didn't really care if the person was dangerous. Ichigo just didn't want any of his family involved, so decided to keep walking. Maybe his stalker would get tired of following him. He really didn't feel like fighting anyone at the moment.

Eventually, when he felt like he went far enough from his house, Ichigo stopped and turned around to see who was behind him. Yeah, that guy was still there. He walked closer to Ichigo.

"Hey," Ichigo called out to him and the man stopped. "Why the hell are you following me?"

The man came close enough for Ichigo to see him. He removed his hood and chuckled. Underneath it, there was a white mask that looked almost like a skull. There was a design on it. It looked like a bloody handprint.

"Well, you made my job a heck of a lot easier," He pulled out a gun and pointed it at him.

_Ah, great. A mugger._

"Listen, if you want any money, you've got your work cut out for you," Ichigo put his hands out in front of him.

"What have we got here, Ray?" another voice came from behind Ichigo. He turned around to see another man with a mask. This one had orange paint splattered all over it.

"That kid we were supposed to be on the lookout for," the handprint mask chuckled, "Ichigo Kurosaki."

Ichigo clenched his fists. How did he know his name? Why were they supposed to be looking for him?

"I have no idea what you two want, but if you try anything-"

"What?" Ichigo felt a gun on the back of his head. "Now listen kid, we don't want any trouble. We just want to talk to you."

"Then what's with the guns?" Ichigo wondered if he could manage to take the gun away from this guy, but it might have been hard since his handprint friend started pointing the gun at him.

"Let's call it insurance," his smirk was made apparent by his tone. Maybe getting out of this would be harder than he thought.

"Listen up, _Strawberry_. You have a couple of choices, here," The one with the splatter mask and the gun to his head said, "We're apart of a- let's call it a 'social group'. We're real powerful and pretty bad ass, and it just so happens that our leader has his eye on you." Ichigo was trying to figure out how to get out of the situation but started to pay attention once the man said that.

_Has his eye on me? Like he's been watching me? Okay, now it's time to get rid of these guys._

"Let me tell you, kid, that's a real big honor. Now you could join us and we'll be peaceful. We won't shoot you or anything and all your family would be safe. But if you don't, there's gonna be a lot of problems for you."

And at this, Ichigo had enough of the two masked men and decided to just hurry up and kick their asses so he could get home. The next moment, Ichigo quickly grabbed the gun at the back of his head. Before the other could shoot, he kicked the gun from his hand.

_Well that was easier than I thought._ Ichigo thought confidently. He immediately turned to the splattered mask.

"No way would I ever sink that low," He pointed the gun at him. It seemed like the threat didn't shake him. In fact, it looked to Ichigo that the guy thought it was funny.

"Well, you can't say I didn't warn you," he laughed. His hand was reaching towards his pocket. He most likely was getting another gun. Ichigo's first instinct was to shoot his hand so he wouldn't try anything.

"Dammit!"

"Louis!" the other masked man shouted to his friend and Ichigo turned to him.

_All I have to do is make sure this guy's not gonna follow me and I can head home,_ but before Ichigo could do anything about this man, another voice came from at the end of the ally way.

"Yo! We've gotta get out of here! Those Reapers are seriously insane, man!" It was yet another man with a skull mask. He paused for a moment at the mouth of the ally but kept running after warning the other two of whatever was coming for them.

_Reapers, huh? Sounds like I got stuck in the middle of a gang battle,_ the thought didn't really bug Ichigo, but the fact that both men had suddenly disappeared, left him uneasy.

"Geez," Ichigo slapped his forehead, "I should have just shot them."

_They must know where I live. Great. Might as well keep this with me,_ he put the safety on and tucked the gun into his pants.

It wasn't until he emerged from the ally that Ichigo realized he was behind Soul the entire time.


	2. D0S: Beautiful, Dirty, RICH

**A/N: OMG research paper took up my life! D= But I'm back (sorry about the wait). I promise I will update in the next month at the most. I might update on Raindrops On Roses, but IDK since I lost my inspiration for it. If I think of something, I'll take care of it. For now, enjoy this chapter ^.^**

**Disclamer: I don't own Bleach nor the song Beautiful, Dirty, Rich (by Lady Gaga)**

**Beautiful, Dirty, Rich**

_Our hair is perfect while we're all getting shit-wrecked. It's automatic; honey, but we've got no money. *Bang, bang* We're beautiful and dirty-rich_

Ichigo barely saw the flash of red and yellow Hawaiian shirt when he opened his heavy eyelids Sunday morning and had absolutely no time to react to the overly excited middle-aged man who was poised to tackle him.

"**Hello Ichigo Kurosaki!!!1!**" Isshin, Ichigo's father, yelled in his son's face.

Ichigo managed to sit up and push his dad off him.

"Jesus, Dad! It's Sunday! You could try to let me sleep in for once," he wasn't all that surprised, though. Isshin's "sneak attacks" (that weren't exactly what you'd call sneaky… who yells the person their sneak attacking's name before they sneak attack?) were routine for Ichigo. They started out when he was thirteen for no apparent reason as far as Ichigo could tell. He stopped wondering if it was child abuse a long time ago.

"Now, now. Don't change the subject!" Isshin popped up from the floor "I need to know why you came home so late last night."

Ichigo didn't bother telling his father what really happened because:

he was extremely tired from his gang battle experience, so he wanted Isshin off his back and not to tackle him again,

it would raise many questions that Ichigo really didn't need at the time (again, he was tired and just got attacked so he didn't want to answer them) and,

to be completely honest with himself, he didn't even want to talk about what happened last night.

So, he went with his original reason for going out that night.

"I was at Keigo's, remember? Time got away from me," Ichigo sighed. Ichigo had always been good at lying (a talent he never really used), but Isshin would see right through every one. It seemed like the lie would work today, but Isshin had a sudden mischievous look on his face.

"This party of his… had girls at it, correct?"

_Party? What party? Hey! What the hell is he getting at?!_ Oh Isshin and his perverted thoughts. He knew his son was lying, but was way off on the reason why.

"Dad-"

"No need to explain!" Isshin interrupted, "Your hormones must have gotten the best of you when you saw a beautiful woman and-"

"What the heck? Dad, I-!"

"I know! You're confused about your feelings! I guess I'll have to have 'the talk' with you again."

Okay, he heard it once from his father and never EVER wanted to hear it from that old pervert again. And where was Karin? Wasn't she usually the one who reeled him in when he was going nuts?

"Knock it off, Dad! It's nothing. I whent to Keigo's house, _didn't_ make out with anybody, lost track of time _**not making out with anybody**_, and came home late! Satisfied?" Ichigo prayed his dad would just shut up and let things go, which was the case. Isshin shrugged and headed towards the door, but once he got there, he had one final thing to say.

"Fathering a child is a very difficult responsibility for someone as young as yourself, so-"

Ichigo slammed the door in his face before Isshin could say anymore. He leaned on the door. Thinking back on that seriously wrong conversation, Ichigo didn't get it. His father never cared where he went or when he came home. It was a fact that Ichigo figured out around the same time that the "sneak attacks" started that Isshin cared more about his twin daughters than his first and only son. Isshin must have known that something was up at Soul and was suspicious.

Maybe Ichigo should tell him what happened. His family was involved with the situation, so it was probably best to say something. But those men from that night could have been bluffing. Maybe they didn't know where he lived. Maybe they'd just drop it. Those chances weren't big, but, judging by the way his stomach turned the more he thought about it, he figured it could wait another day.

Or maybe he was just hungry. It did smell like breakfast was ready.

Ichigo made his way downstairs for the usual morning routine. It was the same every day. Ichigo would get downstairs late for breakfast. His sister, Yuzu, would act concerned since he wasn't on time and "couldn't get the proper amount of nutrition" or something like that. Isshin would throw another sneak attack at him, which usually made Karin intervene when the two got too obnoxious. Today, though his sister stayed on her spot on the couch and completely ignored them.

"Why?" was all Ichigo said to Karin when he sat on the couch after his battle.

"You were home late, you deserved it," Karin mumbled, keeping her eyes on the television screen, "Now shut up so I can hear this."

Another ritual thing in Ichigo's home: the Good Morning Pop Hour, an early morning pop culture show that involved a couple of ditzy looking women yammering on about the antics of random celebrities. Most of the time, though, the show revolved around one group of people in particular.

"And here," an over-tanned blonde pointed to a screen behind her, "we have our exclusive look at what happened at the once yearly opening of Soul, along with some video of the Soul Pack!"

"Yes! I've been waiting for this!" Yuzu sprinted from her place at the kitchen sink to the living room couch in no time flat as soon as she heard what was on TV. She curtly shoved a plate of food at Ichigo while plopping down on the couch the opposite side of him.

He mumbled thanks, but knew Yuzu would be too focused on the stars on television to pay attention to him. In fact, both twins were staring at the TV as if it was the most important thing in the world. The image on screen: the infamous "Soul Pack" prancing around half drunk while paparazzi frenzied around them. These where the people Yuzu, Karin, and everyone else Ichigo knew were obsessed with. To be frank, the entire Soul Fad thing drove him insane.

The Soul Pack was a group of annoying skanks and tools to Ichigo. They were all too perfect. The girls were pretty to the point of looking fake and the guys all looked as if they were shooting steroids. Yet, time after time of heckling from normal people (not the ones mesmerized by the Soul-ness), they (as well as Ichigo's sisters) denied anyone having plastic surgery. Right, all of them were just that naturally good looking.

And, Ichigo had thought of this many times before but got yelled at when he voiced his thoughts to his obsessive family, the Soul Pack did absolutely nothing productive with their lives. They didn't have jobs. Ichigo was pretty sure they didn't sell anything that could make them money, since his sisters would be all over those things if they did. They did absolutely nothing and still managed to be some of the richest and most famous people in America.

What were they even famous for, anyway? Everyone knew they were rich and famous, but how exactly did they become celebrities? It seemed like they always had been at the top of the A-List, but Ichigo had no idea when it even started. His best guess was because they went clubbing all the time but that in itself isn't enough to make you famous.

"…last night's gun activity near Soul is actually being linked to the Soul Pack! Can you believe it?" Ichigo was brought out of his thoughts by the blonde's shrill voice. Her jaw hung open as if she just said the most absurd thing in the entire world.

"No!" both Yuzu and Karin cried. Ichigo smirked at Karin who hated getting caught fan-girling, but she just glared in return.

Then again, another option for why the Soul Pack was famous was the drama and intrigue that surrounded them. This wasn't the first time the Pack had been accused of gang violence. It happened to them a couple of times before and, come to think of it, Ichigo was around Soul when he got attacked by those two guys. If the Pack's involvement in the whole gang thing was true, Ichigo knew his family wouldn't believe him if he bothered to tell. In his house, the Soul Pack could do no wrong.

"Dad, can you believe that they think the wonderful Soul Pack is connected to a gang!?" Yuzu cried and waved her arms at the television angrily. Isshin glanced at the screen and sighed.

"No," he started out calmly but then- "those young people are too innocent and loving to be apart of something so horrible! Look at those angelic faces!" Too bad the image on screen was a girl, Rosalinda, Ichigo recognized, who looked as if she was molesting the youngest guy there. Yeah, they were totally innocent. Though, as far as Ichigo could tell, they sure were loving.

"Well then…" Isshin covered his daughters' eyes quickly.

"Hey!" they protested and tried to shove their father's hands away from them.

"Though, if Ichigo wants to look that's fine with him because he's a young man and he has his needs!" Isshin grinned and turned to his son, but Ichigo was already well up the stairs, trying to escape his father's perverted comments.

* * *

"Well that wasn't a close call at all."

"Yeah, it could have gone better."

"Could have?"

Rose could have sworn she was by herself when she fell asleep last night, or maybe she was so smashed that she couldn't' remember who she went home with. But why was she hearing so many voices?

"Can you guys shut up so I can sleep?" Rose mumbled and cuddled into the pillow under her head.

"Come on, Sleeping Beauty," Rukia said, "Even Rengiku didn't sleep in this late."

Ah why did she need to be awake? Why were there so many voices? Rose was incredibly drunk last night, so moving around would most likely kick start a possible hangover. Seeing as Rose hated vomit with a passion, she ignored everyone.

"Excuse me," Rose thought she heard Kiesuke mumble something just before she got drenched with something cold.

She shot up and screamed from the ice cold water and looked around the room, eyes wide. Rose quickly took in the faces of her friends, most amused by her very rude awakening. Then she observed the familiar monochromatic room where all but the couch was the same grey color, then stared at that comfy black leather couch she was sitting on. Renji sighed impatiently. He could almost hear the gears turning in her head.

"Oh," Rose finally looked up slowly and scratched the back of her neck, "was there a meeting today?"

"Oh no! Of course not," Toshiro rolled his eyes while trying to keep back a smirk, "We're all just gathered in Kieskue's to watch you sleep in the nude."

Rose glanced at her favorite set of Louis Vutton lingerie that she was still wearing from that night. Rose then proceeded to smack Renji for quote "dragging me [her] in my sleep to Kieskue's stupid base (no offense Kiesuke) without letting me even get decent". Which Renji responded to in a panic with "I [Renji] had to get you [Rose] to come because everyone else was there and it's really freaking hard to get you up the morning after you get drunk".

And so after Rose's argument with her friend, Rukia handed Rose her clothes with a laugh. Kiesuke started to talk while she got dressed.

"Well now that everyone's conscious," Kiesuke smirked when he saw that Rose was still death glaring at Renji, "we have to talk about last night's attack."

The room grew silent. Rose quickly finished putting on her clothes and sat down. Everyone knew that last night was a close call. They all could have been exposed and, even worse, innocent lives could have been lost. But on a superficial note, everyone in the room sighed in relief for themselves. They were glad no one was put in jail. If they didn't have that amnesia educing gas or that subliminal message music track, everyone would have been panicked and angry instead of happily drunk at the end of the night.

"Now we've got that whole 'Soul Pack Gang Leaders' thing on our heads again," Rengiku sighed, breaking the silence.

"That's true," Kiesuke sighed quietly. He decided what he was going to tackle first.

Rose shook her head. The press and paparazzi were always looking for ways to bring the seemingly untouchable group of socialites down, but this particular rumor was partially true. Though Rose could say that they were far from just a "_gang_", they were Reapers, which were completely different. The Reapers were and ancient underground society spread across the nations dedicated to keep the world's order or, at least that's what Rose was always told.

"You see," Kiesuke started abruptly, pulling Rose out of her thoughts, "that attack last night wasn't very characteristic of the Hollows."

"Exactly, Yoruichi chimed in, "this attack was much too complicated for them. It was too well planned out."

"Right, because the Hollows are just as smart as they are beautiful," Yumichika said sarcastically with a flip of his hair.

"No one asked you, Chika," Rose mumbled, already annoyed with Yumichika's cocky attitude. It was too early in the morning to listen to his crap.

"Well somebody got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning…" Rengiku giggled.

"I didn't wake up on a bed. I woke up on a couch thanks to someone around here," Rose stuck her tongue out at Renji, but before the redhead could do anything about it, Kiesuke cut in.

"Excuse me, but we do have some serious things to talk about," though he shouldn't have been surprised. As good fighters as they were, his Reapers had very short attention spans. It was rare any serious conversation could be kept without someone finding something to argue about.

"We have reason to believe that the Hollows weren't acting alone when they attacked last night," Yoruichi said. Her face went from the amusement of her Reapers to hardness when the Hollows were mentioned.

It was obvious everyone was lost when Yoruichi told them this, but Rose couldn't help the feeling of deja-vu. She never remembered Hollows working with others the entire time she was a Reaper, and yet the conversation seemed familiar.

"I can tell you're confused, but this was before your time, so you wouldn't really remember," Kiesuke started, talking from under the rim of his hat, "but almost 30 years ago, the Hollows weren't in existence. They were known as Arrancars then. I can't tell you much about them right now, since it's against Society rules to talk about this and it isn't confirmed that that's who were against, but they were a bit more violent than the Hollows. They also had knowledge of Reaper weaponry, fighting style, and other classified information."

"Which they studied through their trademark surveillance and hacking techniques," Yoruichi chimed in, "The attack wasn't too different than what the old Arrancar attacks were. Last night all of our systems, cameras, computers, anything electronic was hacked. It must have been a sound bug, something that let all of our electronics deliver the vibrations of noise to them. It's more advanced than what the Arrancars used to use, but then again, technology knows no bounds…" she trailed off, sounding as if she was talking to herself.

"So… what's to say that they aren't listening to us now?" Toshiro asked.

"Don't worry, I saved all our systems," Yoruichi grinned, happy with her work.

"And even if she didn't, though I highly doubt it considering how brilliant Yoruichi is with these things," Kiesuke smiled at Yoruichi warmly and confidently, "it's not like we're talking about anything they don't know already."

That much was true. They only talked about what happened last night and about how the Arrancars were suspected. Nothing secretive was discussed at all yet. But, Rose thought, it would have been extremely embarrassing since she had that argument with Renji.

"Oh, and by the way," Kiesuke turned to the gigantic flat screen behind him, "they have a new target." Everyone froze in their places, confused.

"They're planning on killing someone? What's new?" Renji stated the obvious.

"Well, no. Its more like a new recruit," Kiesuke messed with the buttons on the remote to the TV. The scenes flashed by quickly but everyone knew what was going on. It was the back alley of Soul. The Hollows were running in through the back door which was, sadly, easily broken through. The time in the corner of the screen ticked away, minutes on the tape passed in seconds while Kiesuke mumbled.

"Ah, here we go," Kiesuke pressed play on the remote and let the tape play out.

It was two Hollows on screen now. It looked like they had cornered someone in the alley. Someone with bright orange hair came on screen. He was fighting the two off.

"This is who they've decided to recruit," Kiesuke paused again when the boy's face was completely on screen and made the picture become a close up. Rose could tell even from the blurry surveillance video that he was quite good looking. Also, Rose noticed while starring at him more that even though he was against two gang members with guns alone in the alley, he looked extremely clam.

"As you can see," Kiesuke pressed play again, letting the boy on screen kick some Hollow butt (Rose grinned to herself. He was hott _and _a natural fighter? It was almost too much for her to take quietly), "he's not all too interested."

"Well he took care of those Hollows quick enough," Ikkaku nodded, "we're the ones that should be recruiting him." He smirked and Rose could practically tell what he was thinking from it. It was something along the lines of 'He's good, but I could so totally kick his ass.'

"That's actually our plan," Kiesuke rewound the tape so they could see the boy's face again; "This is Ichigo Kurosaki. He's important to the Hollows (Kiesuke mumbled the next part,) for some classified reason (and returned his tone to normal) so now we need him on our side for protection. Plus he is a very good fighter so he could be helpful to our cause."

Rose thought she heard Yoruichi mumble something about "how grown he's gotten" but Rose wasn't exactly all there that morning because of the whole hangover effects setting in, so she may have misheard.

Though, Rose knew Kiesuke said that the reason Ichigo was wanted was "classified". She surely wasn't imagining that, but Rose really wanted to know why. It was obvious that the guy could fight, but why should the Hollows choose him out of the tons of people in the city?

Rose's headache was keeping her from thinking, so she figured she'd get the reason out of Kiesuke after she downed the bottle of aspirin.

* * *

A Phone Conversation

"Hello?"

"Kiesuke."

"Oh my, it's been a while since I've heard from you, hasn't it?"

"Yes," the man sighed, "but I didn't exactly call to catch up with you."

"Well, to what do I owe this rare conversation, then?"

"I heard about what happened last night."

"I'd be surprised if you didn't," Kiesuke chuckled, "what with all this publicity nowadays."

"True, it's gotten worse since we were the ones in the spotlight."

There was silence, each man pausing for the serious conversation they knew was coming.

"My son was at Soul last night, wasn't he?"

"Yes, but Tessai tried to get him and his friends to hurry home. They were rejected at the door, and it looked like they were going to leave, but…"

"Ichigo came back."

"Right, but it was only because he was being trailed, from what I could gather."

"I figured as much. He did seem a bit off this morning."

"They know he's your son, Issin. They want him on their side."

"That won't be happening anytime soon. He has a good head on his shoulders, but I'm hoping your promise is pulling through."

"You know me; I'm a man of my word. I've just briefed my Reapers on the situation and, from the way she lit up when she saw your son, it seems like Rosalinda was very excited to move on with this new mission."

"Well, what can I say? He got his looks from his old man."

"Always the humble one, with you. And by the way, Rose is exactly like her mother."

"Oh, I've seen," he chuckled, "so I guess your job is going to be easy."

"I wouldn't say that, but don't worry. I've got everything covered."


	3. TR3S: PAPA Paparazzi

**A/N: So I've been working on something that's not in any way fanfic realated and is my complete original work and is a major project for such a long time that I took a break from writing in general. Then I finally got a laptop and was moving all of my files over when I came across this chapter that was half finished. this is when I started working on it again and now here I am, getting back into the swing of things. ^-^ I can't promise when the next time I'll update is, though. I'm gonna be starting my freshman year of college in a couple of weeks so don't get your hopes up for a quick update. I promise though *puts on some epic terminator sunglasses and does horrible Arnold Swartzeneger impression* I'LL BE BAHCK!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach nor the song Paparazzi by Lady GaGa...**

**Now please enjoy capítulo tres (chapter 3) of the City is at War! :D**

**Papa-Paparazzi**

_I'm your biggest fan. I'll follow you until you love me… Baby you'll be famous. Chase you down until you love me, Papa-Paparazzi._

Rose was usually not a "glass half empty" person, but she was certainly seeing the situation she was in that Saturday afternoon as that. For one thing, she was in a mall, one of the most amazing places in the entire world, but couldn't shop. She wasn't supposed to, anyway. But asking Rose not to buy things was like asking a fish not to swim or a bird not to fly! Shopping would have been the natural order of things, but Kiesuke wanted Rose to focus on her mission, not on the absolutely gorgeous Betsy Johnson dress in the window of the store across the way.

"You okay, Rosie?" Rukia waved her hand in front of Rose's face. Rose knew very well that she was staring at it, but after a week of not buying new clothes or accessories, she was having withdrawal.

"Yeah, I'm just a bit distracted is all," Rose was glad Rukia offered to come along, or Rose definitely would have lost their target. And speaking of their target…

Rose glanced at him, but started to stare despite herself. What always struck her first about him was his hair; his magnificent, orange hair that shone so lovely in the sunlight (or in this case, florescent mall light) and made Rose wish she could just run her fingers through it. Then Rose's eyes would always trail to his body whose perfect, beautiful, tanned, toned, lean-ness was flawlessly complemented by the form fitting shirt he was wearing that day. Damn that stunning body with gorgeous arms so capable of holding rose so gently.

Rukia tried to grab Rose's attention, but it was no use. Rose was hypnotized by the gorgeous-ness that was Ichigo Kurosaki.

"Rosie? Ro~sie? Rose? ROSIE!"

"Huh, what?" Rose snapped out of it, but was still dizzy from drowning in those good looks.

"You do know you're drooling, right?" Rukia tried not to laugh when she stared at the corner of her friend's mouth.

"Uh… psh, Ch-yeah… well-duh," Rose laughed obnoxiously and turned to check if she was serious. Sure enough, there was a string of spit hanging from her mouth. Gross. That never happened before.

Hoping no one saw her drooling, she looked over to Ichigo again. That entire week of watching Ichigo's house he barely came out of his home. It came of surprise to her because Ichigo was so good looking he was bound to have tons of friends (or people hanging around him trying to look like his friends). It turned out that Ichigo wasn't exactly a social butterfly, but today, he actually got out of his house with two of his friends…two of his girl friends.

Rose would normally be a little put off by this, since every guy dropped their girlfriends when they saw Rose walk by and Ichigo's friends were really pretty (especially the one with the Rengiku-esque boobs). It was too bad Rose had to stay undercover to be able to follow Ichigo, because she could have put those two to shame, but they weren't all bad. The one with the spiked up pixie cut made Ichigo laugh for the first time that week.

Rose started staring again. His laugh looked like it sounded amazing. Rose longed to hear it. Oh and that smile! Rose was practically melting. Then she saw his eyes: the most beautiful pair of warm chocolate brown eyes she'd ever seen in her life. Wait, eyes?

It was then Rose realized that Ichigo saw her checking out (or rather, blatantly staring at) him. Normally, if a guy were to see Rose looking at them, she'd just look away coyly, but normally she wouldn't be staring (with her jaw hanging and drooling) at a guy. Rosalinda was calm, cool, and collected. Rosalinda never stared at guys, but glanced with flirty eyes and a smile that said "come get me I'm yours". Rosalinda… had absolutely no idea what to do at the moment.

Once Rose mentally slapped herself for freaking out over a little embarrassing moment with one guy, she settled on her coy smile and turned around to the rack of clothes behind her. She hoped Ichigo didn't think she was weird or anything, but what did it matter? He was only one guy. There was always more when it came to Rose, who was one of the most recognized faces in California. Though…

Ichigo wasn't some guy she was trying to hook up with. She was supposed to be tracking him and protecting him from any Hollows that could try anything. Rose inhaled sharply.

"Ruki!" she whispered through the rack, trying to find her friend, "Rukia!"

"Why are you whispering?" Rukia popped her head through the rack with several pairs of sunglasses on her.

"He saw me," Rose tapped her handbag, nervously. If Ichigo recognized Rose, others might see and her cover would be completely blown. She couldn't track him anymore which would mean Hollows could attack him. And Kiesuke would be royally pissed if Rose messed this up.

"…So?..."

"Rukia, you're obviously not getting this. He knows I'm here. I'm supposed to be incognito," Rose stuck her hand in her bag to get her phone. She was close to calling Kiesuke.

"Calm down, Rosie. I'm sure we're fine. He's not gonna come over here if he recognizes you," Rukia waved her hand and started removing the sunglasses, "I know how guys act around you. Assholes will think they can get with you and you'll turn them down. Sweet guys like Ichigo don't just walk up to you and start hitting on you. It's highly improbable since they're all intimidated by- uh." Rukia's attention was behind her friend now.

Rose turned around, knowing exactly who was behind her.

"Hey, I couldn't help but notice you staring at me from across the mall."

* * *

Kiesuke sat in his office on Level 11 of soul staring at the phone as if his life depended on it. He knew it wasn't like him to be sitting around by himself all the way in the bottom floor of the compound, but every time he stepped away from his personal surveillance room he could imagine Rose calling for back up because she couldn't help but whore herself out to the paparazzi. So Kiesuke waited patiently by the phone hoping that Rose wouldn't need him for anything. Though it was killing him to be sitting by himself all this time and it had been a couple of hours. Plus, he'd been nervous like this all week. He was really loosing faith in his technology. He shouldn't have been so worried about Rose in the first place. If his memory wipe lasted this long, seeing Ichigo wouldn't trigger anything right?

"I can't believe it. You're actually being outwardly concerned about Rosie's mission," hearing Yoruichi's voice come from the door made him jump. He struggled to pull himself together while his friend giggled.

"I'm not… concerned… about Rosie's mission. I'm not in any way worried that she'll get distracted because of hormones, or she'll somehow attract paparazzi like she normally does. I mean, it's highly unlikely that she'll have to publicly fight any Hollows today, or even Arrancars for that matter. And, even if that did happen, I know Rose could handle it. That's also part of the reason I sent- I mean let- Rukia go with Rose, but then again, with Kuchki around, she's far more likely to get into trouble. Not that I'm really worried about it, or anything."

Yes, Kiesuke was worried, more so than he had ever been in his entire life, about Rose on this mission and this mission alone, but he had reason to. First off, Rose was all too excited to hear about the details of what was going on with Ichigo Kurosaki, so when he tried to hold off any final decisions and mission briefings until after Yoruichi could look into the situation more, Rose nagged him until he couldn't stand it anymore.

Originally, the Reapers were going to take turns tracking Ichigo, but once Rose heard this, she volunteered to do it herself. Kiesuke was concerned because 1) Rose was always being followed by cameras and absolutely loved it, so there was little possibility of being secretive for long periods of time with her, and 2) having Ichigo and Rose together could stir up things that wouldn't be good for the sake of the mission such as Rose's need to flirt and past memories. But Kiesuke lost his argument with Yoruichi when he told her these things and off Rose went to stare at the Kurosaki household all week.

Even though there were no problems so far, Kiesuke couldn't shake the feeling that something was going to happen soon. Something was coming and, though Rose was the most capable of his Reapers, Kiesuke didn't want her out there by herself when it arrived.

For now, though, Kiesuke was putting on his best poker face for Yoruichi, but she was easily seeing through it.

"Kiesuke, I know that there's been very little Hollow activity recently and they're likely to strike at any minute," Yoruichi walked across the room to Kiesuke and sat on his lap.

"Go on," Kiesuke smirked, Yoruichi just rolled her eyes.

"But really, Rosie can handle anything they throw at her for now," she played with the hair sticking out of his green and white striped hat, "You know, it's really out of character for you to act like a nervous parent."

Kiesuke could tell she was enjoying every minute of his anxiousness which was why he chose to lock himself up in his surveillance room rather than pace around the compound and obsessing over his cell phone.

"You see, that's why I don't do anything but keep my casual front, because there's always people like you who rub it in," Kiesuke sighed and pushed Yoruichi off him.

"Rubbing in? Who? Me?" Yoruichi said with a smirk and slinked away.

* * *

Ichigo wasn't the type of person that others flocked to. Whether it was because he was a quiet, wimpy, mama's boy as a child, or because he had what was currently called a "mean face" (which he didn't really get. Sure, he scowled a lot, but that didn't mean he was planning on killing anyone), people just didn't come around Ichigo to be friends. Of course, that could have been his fault, since he wasn't exactly a people person, but he did like having friends. He just didn't make much. He thought most people he met were annoying, so he didn't bother talking to them; though actually making friends with people was easy for him when he opened up. It was very rare for that to happen, so Ichigo had but a few close friends.

And because Ichigo didn't really open up to people, he never had the ability to talk to girls he liked or even come close to getting a girl to like him. The last time he asked a girl out, it didn't end well (he didn't like remembering it out of embarrassment). He had been on a date, though, which didn't go anywhere since, a week after it, Ichigo found out Keigo paid the girl to go out with him. So, Ichigo had never had an actual girlfriend, something that Tatsuki kept pointing out that afternoon.

"Ichigo, I've known you since we were little. It's natural for me to be concerned that at 17, a few months from being of legal age, you still haven't had a girlfriend or even realize when a girl is interested in you," Tatsuki grinned and shook her head at Ichigo. He just rolled his eyes and continued eating his pretzel.

"I could tell if a girl liked me or not, but since when has that happened," he finished chewing.

"Well…" Tatsuki glanced at Orehime then mumbled, "hasn't been that long ago." Ichigo had no idea what her last comment meant so he didn't bother with it.

"But why are you even on my case? I mean, when was the last time you went out?"

"Actually, since you're so interested, I have a date tonight with Riku- you know, that guy from my kickboxing class- not that it has anything to do with why I'm having this conversation with you at all, Mr. Oblivious."

"Aw, so you've given up on me?" Ichigo smiled, but after seeing Orehime's giggles and Tatsuki's smirk and rethinking what was just said, Ichigo frowned. "Hey!"

"Like I said, oblivious," Tatsuki held back her laughter.

"Ichigo, Tatsuki's just trying to be a good friend…even if she's making fun of you at the same time," Orehime smiled, "But I'm sure the right girl's right under your nose."

"Thanks Orehime. At least you're being nice about it. Tatsuki's been bugging me about my lack of love life ever since we got to the mall," Ichigo was really starting to get annoyed with the whole thing. He was well aware of the fact that he had no game whatsoever. Ichigo didn't need to be reminded by his so-called best friend.

"I'm just bringing it up because this one over here has been staring at you the entire time we've been here," Tatsuki sipped her drink while looking into the boutique behind Ichigo.

"What?" he blinked and turned slowly to follow his friend's gaze, thinking that she was kidding. She had to be. Since when did girls stalk Ichigo? Not in his lifetime, he thought, but there she was. There was a girl staring at him. A really familiar looking one, too. Ichigo just couldn't put his finger on it. There was something about those eyes- those deep brown, hypnotizing eyes. It didn't hit him until the girl blushed, froze in her spot like a deer in the headlights, and, after what seemed to be her claming herself down, smiled and turned away. He knew that girl. _Everyone_ in California knew that girl.

"Rosalinda Hikari?" Orehime brought Ichigo back to reality, though he still thought he was out of it. Rosalinda Hikari, the lead skank in the Soul Pack, the one woman who could literally have anyone she wanted, had just been staring at him. It was absolutely unbelievable… so he chose to ignore it.

"Please, Orehime- pft… that's… not Rosalinda. Your eyes are just playing tricks on you," it was harder to get the words out through his complete and utter shock, but he did it anyway. It was too bad Tatsuki could see though the horrible charade he was putting on to look like he didn't care the party princess was checking him out.

"No that definitely is," she finally laughed at Ichigo's flustered expression, "I noticed her maybe five minutes after we got to the mall. I just didn't say anything."

_Wait, so she's been following me this entire time? Rosalinda's been stalking me _all_ day and Tatsuki didn't say _anything_ to me?_

"Tatsuki, why would you not tell me that one of the hottest girls on the planet was checking me out?" Ichigo whispered (in one of those loud, harsh, absolutely extra, ways people do when they're over-excited) and leaned across the table.

"I thought you didn't like the Soul Pack," Tatsuki answered much more calmly and monotone than Ichigo was being at the moment.

_One of the hottest girls on the planet?_ Ichigo had no idea where that one came from. He didn't remember really thinking it before. It just sort of slipped out. Now that he thought of it, though, Rosalinda was a lot more attractive in person. Especially when she blushed and when she did that whole spaz thing. That was actually kind of cute. Plus, it was completely normal. Actually, it was something Ichigo would have done. He had to admit, even though she was one of the most infamous girls in the country, Rosalinda didn't seem all that intimidating then. Ichigo started to think, crazy as the thought was, that-

"You should go talk to her," Tatsuki said with a sigh as she picked up her things, "you know, since she's obviously been interested in you but hasn't said anything to you. It's kind of funny since she's supposed to be easy and all." The girls stood up from their table.

"We should be heading out. I've got to drop Orehime off at her house, and then it's off to train the junior class at the gym," she glanced at Orehime and back to Ichigo, "Later, Ichigo." She started walking in the direction she parked, leaving Orehime and Ichigo alone for a second.

"Well, if you talk to Rosalinda, good luck," Orehime looked upset to be leaving, but lightened up quickly and smiled. "Goodbye, Ichigo," she waved and ran to catch up to Tatsuki.

_So I'm actually going to do this,_ Ichigo stood up after his friends left the table and tried to convince himself that talking to Rosalinda wouldn't go horribly wrong. _But, I really shouldn't be worried about looking like an idiot since she was the one that was staring at and apparently stalking me._ Another thought occurred to him though. He didn't need to be worrying about what this girl thought of him since he didn't like her much in the first place and there was very little chance of seeing her ever again. What did he care if some slut didn't like him? It wasn't like there weren't a million and one other guys that tried to get her attention everyday.

"…Sweet guys like Ichigo don't just walk up to you and start hitting on you," Ichigo walked up to Rosalinda and her well-known partner in clubbing, Rukia Kuchki, "It's highly improbable since they're all intimidated by- uh." Rukia trailed off on her analyzing of how men reacted to her friend and looked at Ichigo, who was now behind Rose.

Rose turned slowly to face Ichigo. She seemed relatively unsurprised to see that he was there, but there was something eerily familiar about her green-flecked brown eyes. Normally Ichigo would have absolutely no idea what to say or even how to flirt with such a beautiful girl, especially one with a reputation like Rose's. At the moment, though, Ichigo thought it was perfectly natural to say:

"Hey, I couldn't help but notice you staring at me from across the mall." Though, he didn't really think about it. The words just popped out of his mouth… again. The second after saying it, he realized how dumb it sounded.

"Well, actually, I was staring into that store brimming with Betsy Johnson goodness, when I just happened to be distracted by that bright orange hair of yours," Rose answered, unfazed by Ichigo's last sentence.

"What's wrong with being a ginger?"

"Nothing. It looks good on you."

Then there was silence, but not an awkward one (for the two anyway). Rose and Ichigo were just looking at each other with smiles on their faces and goo-goo eyes that made Rukia want to puke. The two of them just met. There was no need to get all romantic so fast. So Rukia cleared her throat to get Rose's attention.

"Ahem…"

"Oh!" Rose blushed (for about the millionth time today) and motioned to Rukia, "This is my friend, Rukia and I'm Rosalinda. But, you can call me Rosie," she introduced both of them even though Ichigo already knew who they were. He guessed it was to make her look humble, since it would really cocky to just assume he knew. Ichigo smiled.

"I'm Ichigo."

"Heh, cute," Rose grinned.

"What?"

"You're name means strawberry," Rose laughed when Ichigo glared back at her. Ichigo sighed.

"No, my name means 'someone who protects' in Japanese,"

"It's okay if you're in denial. I mean, that name is a bit cutesy for you, though it kind of fits since you're a red head."

"Well what's your name supposed to mean?"

"It's 'beautiful rose' in Spanish."

"I guess that's pretty fitting…"

Then they were silent again and Rukia was wishing she could just shoot herself in the head to escape the awkward.

_Oh wait, I could_, Rukia ran her finger along her belt, actually contemplating pulling out the pistol that was hidden under her dress, but looked at the two and sighed. _Looks like Rosie got her guy. Unsurprising…_

"So, this is becoming painfully awkward…" Rukia spoke making the other two jump, "I'm gonna go." Rukia spun around in the opposite direction and went straight across the way to the Betsy Johnson outlet Rose was staring minutes earlier.

"Well, I completely forgot she was there," Rose mumbled to herself.

"Me too," Ichigo watched in amazement as Rukia practically sprinted across the mall, "Can all of you do that in heels?"

"It's a gift," Rose brought his attention back to her, "but, I'm sorry about the staring thing. I've had a pretty tiring week and I kind of zoned out there." This wasn't a total lie. Watching Ichigo's house all week was pretty boring and therefore, tiring, and Rose did completely blank out while she was staring. It was conscious staring at first but still.

"It's nothing…kind of an ego booster, though," Ichigo shrugged as if he was always being checked out by gorgeous famous chicks all the time, "Well, an ego giver, anyway, since I never really had one in the first place." Ichigo found it funny that he could be as casual with a girl as infamous as Rose but didn't really think anything of it.

"Then I'm glad I could give you that rush of confidence," Rose smiled. She couldn't help but think of how adorably sweet this guy was. Ichigo had kept his eyes on his face the entire time he was talking to her, which was something very little guys did around her. So not only was he a kick ass fighter and had an absolutely beautiful body, he was also not a jerk. He was seriously racking up the points.

And just as Rose was sure Ichigo was going to do the chivalrous thing and ask her out (a rare occasion for her since most of her relationships consisted of one night stands), she noticed a man in all white glaring at her from the corner of her eye.

The man's green eyes nearly pierced through her as if with just one look he knew everything about her. His glare was intimidating, but Rose found herself unable to look away. The man shook his head emotionlessly towards her then turned and started walking in the opposite direction. Though the silent exchange took only seconds, Rose felt like the moment stretched for hours. The intensity of this man's stare struck a chord with her. She immediately knew something was up.

"Hollow-!"


End file.
